Charles Hammonds

In 1965, during my freshman year at UCLA, Dr. King came to campus and
spoke to the students. Some of us were moved enough to sign up for the
Bruin SCOPE project later that summer. After an initial orientation in
Atlanta we were assigned to a voter registration project in Macon,
Georgia. In August we heard of trouble further south in Georgia. Some
of us volunteered to go down to Americus and lend a hand. Our non
violent demonstrations resulted in all of us being arrested and
confined in the local jail. Ironically I was later stationed in the
same area during my service in the US Army.

Many years later I again returned to the South, deployed by the
American Red Cross in response to Hurricane Katrina. Towards the end
of my rotation I stayed overnight in Meridian, the town where Michael
Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were brutally murdered by
the Ku Klux Klan. Many things have changed since the days of
Mississippi Burning, many things still need to change but I do believe
that our work had some lasting effect. It certainly had a lasting
effect on me, shaping my life for years to come. I also count some of
my fellow Bruin SCOPE members as life-long friends and for that I am
grateful.